About me

Welcome fellow crafting enthusiasts. My name is Bonnie Garrett, and I’ve been crafting since before I could hold scissors properly, and have loved every aspect of the crafting arts. My first significant crafting memory is from age six, when I sewed my premier clothing piece, a pair of shorts for my brother. Knowing nothing about pattern making, I grabbed a pair of my brother Michael’s bermuda shorts and laid them directly on top of a piece of folded material that was just slightly larger than his shorts. I then cut around them, no pins or worries, directly against our hard wood floor. I hand-sewed those pieces of material together (I was six, mom wasn’t letting me near her Bernina) in nice large stitches. Brilliant!

I am a practical person, so I started with tiny stitches about 1/4 inches apart, but it was just taking too long. Why would anyone spend so much time sewing tiny stitches when a one inch stitch did the same thing? Proudly finishing his shorts in no time at all, I turned them right side out, and voila! On display, hanging from my petite hands was one of the saddest looking things I have ever made. I couldn’t figure out what I had done wrong (seriously, I couldn’t figure it out), and I was a little embarrassed. I had used all that material, and my family was never one to waste anything. The shorts were lop sided, far too small for my brother, and parts of the insides were poking out on the side seams.

Being the clever crafter and optimist that I am, I learned early on, there are no mistakes, just opportunities to do something different. So, obviously, I had made shorts for Michael’s giant “boy” doll. Yes, I’m from the 60’s, and such a thing existed. Think of it as an ugly, boy-styled, “my size” Barbie. My mother found it at thrift shop, from whence all great things come.

Well, on my brother’s birthday, I presented him with a hideous hand made pair of shorts for his ugly naked doll. Everyone seemed pleased, and I knew I was destined for crafting greatness from then on.

I must say my crafting has improved over the years, but my mistakes continue, and I take delight in finding ways to make them work. I do this all the time when making cards. I’m positive the first sponged or spritzed card was because someone dropped their stamp onto the card or accidentally touched the base with an inky finger. What…it’s just me? And the torn and wrinkled look, yeah, we know how that originated too.

I have found that having the right tools certainly improves my outcomes, and I’ve been using Stampin’ Up! products for about 12 years to scrapbook and make cards. About two years ago, my own demonstrator, Deb Cozzone, suggested I sign up as a demonstrator myself, and with encouragement from my friends and husband, I’ve made a go of it and have really enjoyed the process.

The one thing I have lacked is a web presence. Don’t get me wrong, I do have something through Stampin’ Up, but I never got the hang of using their blog form, so I haven’t published that part of it. It’s a great tool to post my classes, and to link directly to my shopping site, but it lacks “me”. I’ve been putting off blogging because I wanted everything done right, and I tend to be a perfectionist (tend?…my husband is laughing hysterically), so rather than do something halfway, I’ve been spending hours (months, oh let’s be honest, two years), trying to figure out how to blog “the right way”.

Now you see my dilemma. While I love to write and create, I don’t like taking the time to figure out the intricacies of technology, like making a blog aesthetically appealing, adding water marks to my photos, or putting clever little buttons on the side of the blog to take you someplace else intended. So, I have given up my eternal quest for perfection (again, hysterical laughter from my husband) and am diving in feet first. I’m just going to start sharing and posting my creations, as imperfectly as they must be, in order to get them out there for you. I hope you can relate and enjoy. And I promise to keep working on my crafts, and my blog aesthetics!

I’m a member of InKing Royalty and

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The content in this blog is the sole responsibility of Bonnie Garrett as an Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator and the use of and content of classes, services or products offered is not endorsed by Stampin' Up!